8 Signs You're About To Be Fired

Getting fired can have lasting repercussions, both financially
and professionally. Bills may go unpaid, and having left on such
poor terms, securing a reference who will speak fondly of your
tenure may be next to impossible. In a worst-case scenario, an
employer cuts ties unexpectedly.

Some employees may detect dissatisfaction in their boss, as
one-on-one meetings and warning emails send red flags regarding
their job security. Others who lack self-awareness may have no
clue what's coming. For both the alert and oblivious, here are
some signs that you may soon get the professional ax.

Your boss views you as an irritant, not an
asset. Having a conflict-ridden relationship with
your boss is a leading indicator that your job is in jeopardy,
according to Cynthia Shapiro, a former human resources executive
and author of "Corporate Confidential: 50 Secrets Your Company
Doesn't Want You to Know — and What to Do About Them." "If you
and your boss are oil and water, you have no job security," she
says. "[It] doesn't matter how good you are at your job, doesn't
matter how much money you make for the company ... If you're a
thorn in your boss's side, [he or she] will get rid of you as
soon as possible."

You get the universal cold
shoulder. Having
already made up his or her mind about your ouster, your boss
becomes emotionally detached, says Monica Wofford, a leadership
development expert and author of "Make Difficult People
Disappear." "This is also why they stop being jovial, stop being
chatty [and] stop talking about social attributes."

Meanwhile, colleagues privy to your fate and mindful of the
drawbacks of being associated with a soon-to-be fired employee,
cease making eye contact and offering invites to lunch and happy
hour, Shapiro says.

Word about your negativity has
spread. Routinely slamming the company, both in
written and verbal form, has become one of your favorite
pastimes. As a result, your utterances have caused your boss and
colleagues to brand you as a Negative Nancy and a drain on
company morale. Such employees, Shapiro says, are always prime
targets for being fired.

You confirm your boss's worst
perceptions. Your recent behavior does little to
dispel entrenched notions your boss has developed. "When a boss
labels an employee as a non-performer, [it] means that boss will
then seek out actions, behaviors, and demonstrations that
validate the label they've given that employee," Wofford says.
For example, if your boss is suspicious about your work ethic, he
or she will look for episodes of laziness. If you turn in work
late or pass on projects intended to help you grow as an
employee, you've vindicated his or her opinion.

High profile projects no
longer come your way. At one point, you were the go-to person for
dealing with important clients and finishing major projects. But
now your boss delegates prestigious assignments to other
employees. "[He or she] is no longer willing to align themselves
with you as a highly visible member of the team," Wofford
says.

You're given a performance improvement
plan. Months of mistakes or having a negative
attitude has led your boss to treat you as a grade school student
by tracking your performance on a daily or weekly basis. In
creating a performance improvement plan, the company may set
goals that are unattainable. In that case, it's "no longer
invested in [an employee's] success or keeping them," Shapiro
says.

Everyone else gets a raise but you. For
months, you've stayed late or put in lengthy hours on the
weekends. Yet your extra effort isn't being rewarded with a bump
in pay. Meanwhile, your colleagues are ecstatic over their recent
salary increases. "If you feel like you've been working hard and
everyone else on your team is getting a raise, you're in
trouble," Shapiro says. "That's the beginning of either being
managed out or set up for termination."

The new hire learns all your
responsibilities. Being on the chopping block may
have nothing to do with performance or attitude. Instead, the
company may want your services at a cheaper rate. Enter the new
employee, who within weeks has learned everything you do.
Ironically, you may have trained him or her. Shapiro puts it this
way: "As soon as that person's trained, guess what happens to
you?"

What are your legal
options?

Whether you were expecting to be fired or not, you may wonder
what legal recourse is available to you. When it comes to hashing
the firing out in court, employers definitely have the upper
hand, notes Steven Stern, a Philadelphia-based attorney who
specializes in commercial and employment discrimination
litigation.

All states except Montana abide by the at-will doctrine, which
gives employers the ability to fire employees at any time for any
reason. As Stern points out, "it doesn't have to be a good
reason. It's only if a person fits into a protected class that
they may be protected," he says. Those protected classes, as
defined by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission which
enforces federal discrimination laws, include race, color,
religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability, or
genetic information.

If you don't fall into one of those categories but feel that you
were wrongly terminated, there are other grounds to sue. For
example, you may bring a case based on constructive discharge,
which is when a worker is involuntarily forced to resign due to
an employer creating a hostile or intolerable work environment.
But constructive discharge is more difficult to prove than when
an employee is actually discharged, Stern says. "You must show
that any reasonable person in the same circumstances would leave
their job because the conditions are so onerous."